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PRTG Manual: Cloud Ping Sensor

<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Cloud Ping Sensor

The Cloud Ping sensor monitors the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) ping times to its parent device from different locations worldwide via the PRTG Cloud. These locations are distributed among five continents around the globe.

Cloud Ping Sensor

For a detailed list and descriptions of the channels that this sensor can show, see section Channel List.

Sensor in Other Languages

Dutch: Cloud Ping
French: Cloud Ping
German: Cloud Ping
Japanese: クラウド Ping
Portuguese: Ping da nuvem
Russian: Пинг из облака
Simplified Chinese: 云 Ping
Spanish: Ping de nube

Remarks

The probe system must have access to the internet and must be able to reach https://api.prtgcloud.com:443 to communicate with the PRTG Cloud.
The address that you define in the settings of the parent device must be reachable over the internet. You cannot use this sensor to monitor localhost (127.0.0.1).
This sensor inherits proxy settings for HTTP sensors from the parent device.
This sensor has predefined limits for several metrics. You can individually change these limits in the channel settings. For detailed information about channel limits, see section Channel Settings.
This sensor has a low performance impact.

This sensor only supports the IPv4 protocol.

See the Knowledge Base: Are there any limits for using Cloud Ping and Cloud HTTP sensors?
See the Knowledge Base: What is the PRTG Cloud Bot?

Add Sensor

The Add Sensor dialog appears when you manually add a new sensor to a device. It only shows the settings that are required to create the sensor. You can change nearly all settings on the sensor's Settings tab after creation.

Basic Sensor Settings

Click the Settings tab of a sensor to change its settings.

Basic Sensor Settings

Setting	Description
Sensor Name	Enter a name to identify the sensor.
Parent Tags	Shows tags that the sensor inherits from its parent device, parent group, and parent probe. This setting is for your information only. You cannot change it.
Tags	Enter one or more tags. Confirm each tag with the Spacebar key, a comma, or the Enter key. You can use tags to group objects and use tag-filtered views later on. Tags are not case-sensitive. Tags are automatically inherited. It is not possible to enter tags with a leading plus (+) or minus (-) sign, nor tags with parentheses (()) or angle brackets (<>). For performance reasons, it can take some minutes until you can filter for new tags that you added. The sensor has the following default tags that are automatically predefined in the sensor's settings when you add the sensor: pingsensor
Priority	Select a priority for the sensor. This setting determines the position of the sensor in lists. The highest priority is at the top of a list. Choose from the lowest priority () to the highest priority ().

Usually, a sensor connects to the IP Address/DNS Name of the parent device. See the device settings for details. For some sensors, you can explicitly define the monitoring target in the sensor settings.

Ping Settings

Setting	Description
Packet Size (Bytes)	Enter the packet size in bytes for the Ping. You can enter any value between 1 and 10,000. We recommend that you use the default value.
Ping Count	Enter the number of Pings that PRTG sends in a row to the parent device in one scanning interval. Enter an integer. The default value is 1. The maximum value is 5.
Timeout (Sec.)	Enter a timeout in seconds for the Ping. If the reply takes longer than this value, PRTG cancels the request and shows an error message. Enter an integer. The maximum timeout value is 5 seconds.
Port	Enter the number of the port that the sensor uses for TCP ping. The default port is 80. This sensor does not support port 25.

Sensor Display

Setting	Description
Primary Channel	Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor. You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.
Graph Type	Define how different channels are shown for this sensor: Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel. Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic. You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).
Stack Unit	This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Setting

Description

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, the last value of the primary channel is always displayed below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how different channels are shown for this sensor:

Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you enable Stack channels on top of each other as Graph Type. Select a unit from the list. All channels with this unit are stacked on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Inherited Settings

By default, all of these settings are inherited from objects that are higher in the hierarchy. We recommend that you change them centrally in the root group settings if necessary. To change a setting for this object only, click under the corresponding setting name to disable the inheritance and to display its options.

For more information, see section Inheritance of Settings.

Scanning Interval

This sensor has a fixed minimum scanning interval for performance reasons. You cannot use a shorter scanning interval. Consequently, shorter scanning intervals in the Monitoring settings are not available for this sensor.

The minimum scanning interval of this sensor is 10 minutes.

Scanning Interval

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

You cannot interrupt the inheritance for schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. The corresponding settings from the parent objects are always active. However, you can define additional schedules, dependencies, and maintenance windows. They are active at the same time as the parent objects' settings.

Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Schedules, Dependencies, and Maintenance Window.

Access Rights

For more information, see section Root Group Settings, section Access Rights.

Channel List

Which channels the sensor actually shows might depend on the target device, the available components, and the sensor setup.

Channel	Description
Asia Pacific (Singapore) - Response Time	The response time of the target server at the location in msec
Asia Pacific (Sydney) - Response Time	The response time of the target server at the location in msec
Asia Pacific (Sydney) - Response Time	The response time of the target server at the location in msec
Downtime	In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status in percent.
EU Central (Frankfurt) - Response Time	The response time of the target server at the location in msec
EU West (Ireland) - Response Time	The response time of the target server at the location in msec
Global Average	The global average in msec
Global Average - Response Time	The global average response time in msec This channel is the primary channel by default.
South America (São Paulo) - Response Time	The response time of the target server at the location in msec
US East (N. Virginia) - Response Time	The response time of the target server at the location in msec
US West (N. California) - Response Time	The response time of the target server at the location in msec
US West (Oregon) - Response Time	The response time of the target server at the location in msec

Knowledge Base

Are there any limits for using Cloud Ping and Cloud HTTP sensors?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/63590

What is the PRTG Cloud Bot?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/65719

What security features does PRTG include?

https://kb.paessler.com/en/topic/61108